-watched via Netflix
We watched this movie as a family after my eleven-year-old and I read this book. The movie follows the outline of the story well, but changes some events to add drama, especially when Albert joins the war and discovers Joey again.
Warning: P-13-war violence, a couple of people die that the viewer grows to like
*Highly recommend.
The Father of the Underground Railroad
The amazing story about William Still and how he made a difference in rescuing people from slavery. He recorded their stories and eventually hid his records when the Fugitive Slave Act was enacted.
Expressive illustrations.
*Highly recommend.
-Borrowed from the library.
Khosrou (Daniel) is a refugee from Iran. In Iran he was wealthy and was respected. People also did not accuse him of smelling and being a liar. As he responds to his teacher's writing prompts, his classmates (and the reader) learn about his family's ancient history and his journey to the United States.
This book made me think a lot about misconceptions I may have and evaluate how I treat others who are different from me. I loved learning about the Iranian culture.
The layout of the story is not totally linear. He follows Scheherazade story telling techinque. Although the book is marketed for middle grade readers, some parents may want to discuss some of the topics with their child (see warnings).
Warnings: physical abuse, bullies, unkindness/prejudice, drug abuse (opium), His mom converts to Christianity and flees with her children so they aren't murdered, divorce, murder, adultery
*Highly recommend (very unique/love the culture insight)
-Borrowed from the library.
Sequel to War Horse
My eleven-year-old and I loved reading War Horse together. I was excited to find the sequel. While War Horse categorized as "young adult", this sequel is written on a transitional reader level. Albert's son shares his memories of his dad (Albert) and the horses, Joey and Zoey with his grandson.
Some parts in here don't match up with War Horse and made me a bit confused. For example, Albert was part of the veterinary corp during World War I, but in this book it says he was fighting in the war and was the one who rescued Joey from no man's land. It also said that he bought Joey from the army with his army salary when in fact, he bought Joey from a Frenchman for one penny. Maybe I am missing something and not reading well?? Although I liked this simple follow-up, it made me confused!
-Borrowed from the library.
Elmore, the porcupine, is lonely. Nobody wants to be his friend because of his sharp quills. He comes up with a plan to allow people to appreciate him how he is.
Sweet story!
-Borrowed from the library.
Very interesting and engaging two page biographies/introductions to over thirty artists. Ms. Alexander also suggests some art projects that mimic the featured artist or teach an aspect of the artist's technique.
*Highly recommend.
-Borrowed from the library.
Rated: G; 97 minutes long
After listening to this book on an audio CD, my sons and I watched this DVD. Although the movie follows the outline of the book well, it did not include the rich details and many events that led up to the main events. We enjoyed the movie, but the book was a richer experience.
-Borrowed from the library.
Poems About Soccer
A wide variety of poems featuring a beloved sport. The poems are cleverly laid out and focus on topics to which soccer players will readily relate.
The author includes a note about the poems at the end, asking the reader to figure out which poem was which form.
-Borrowed from the library.
A brief overview of Picasso's life and art progression. Cartoons add humor.
Warning: Although the reading level is elementary, the library has caterogized it as "young adult" because some of Picasso's artwork features women with their breasts fully exposed.
-Borrowed from the library.
Ms. Raskin's illustrations throughout the book are adorable! She draws pigs well!!
Becca, one of quadruplets, feels like she is the only one in her family who isn't good at something. When she discovers a piglet in the bushes while on a walk with her family, she realizes that raising a pig could be "her thing". She names HER pig Saucy and dedicates every part of herself to Saucy's care. Unfortunately, Saucy destroys many items, expensive items, in their house and . . . she will eventually be six-hundred-pounds. A local pig sanctuary may be the answer . . .
Their grandmother lives with them and is quite grouchy. She adds an intersesting dimension to the story. Becca's one brother, Bailey, has cerebral palsey. Ms. Kadohata integrates his reality so well. She isn't preachy or didactic about having a special needs child.
I did not like the conclusions she may leave readers with about farms. True, her focus is on factory-farms, but my concern is that since most people are not familiar with farms, they may jump to the conclusion that all large farms are run this way. Most farmers' spend more money and time on their animals' needs, food and housing than their own! In the notes the author expresses her gratitude an online group of pig owners and PETA. I wonder, however, if she visited a farm and talked with farmers.
Points to consider/discuss: In the first chapter Becca is trying to teach herself to meditate. Meditation was going to be "her thing". Her one brother, K.C., believes that they are living in a simulation run by aliens. He questions the meaning of life and whether humans have a free will. Becca's best friend's mom is arrested (we never find out why . . .just that she spent five months in jail). Becca buckles under peer pressue and treats Mackenzie (her best friend) meanly. Throughout the book Becca is processing her character and how "bad" of a person she is because of how she treated Mackenzie. At the end it seems like Mackenzie and Jammer, one of Becca's brothers, are beginning a romance (as much as eleven-year-olds can!). Farms vs factory-run farms.
-Borrowed from the library.
Walt Disney Production featuring Jackie Chan.
Rated -PG
Recently my fourteen-year old read Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne for literature. For fun we watched the movie as a family.
The movie is funny and action-packed (thanks to Jackie Chan!). Although the events veer greatly from the book, it was entertaing and an enjoyable story. Most of the story revolves around Jackie Chan's character.
Warning: Jackie flies by a room with prostitutes, a ship's captain shares that shark bit off his testicules (but refers to them as another name . . .I don't think my sons even got it) and how his wife doesn't care for him since the event, a few times women's cleavages show
-Borrowed from the library.
-Award Winner-Newbery Honor Book
Georgie knows her sister is still alive even though the sheriff came home with a body of a girl who was wearing a dress Georgie's mom handstitched. The body is in pieces and not recognizable. Feeling like she prompted her sister's departure, Georgie sets off the Dog Hollow, the last place her sister was seen alive. As she investigates with Billy McCabe (her sister's former boyfriend), she uncovers more crime and learns more about herself.
Set in 1871 when the passenger pigeons flood Wisconsin and the Great Chicago Fire, the book will transport the reader to this time period. The writing was beautiful. I really liked Georgie, faults and all.
Labeled "Young Adult".
Points to discuss-death/murder, shooting pigeons/wasting them, Georgie admires Billy's body, subtle reference paying for a prostitute, people think Billy's taking advantage/abusing Georgie (not true, though)
*Highly recommend.
My eleven-year old and I read this book together during our literature time to support our study of World War I. My son loved this book!
Joey, a beautiful, red-bay horse, loves his owner Albert and his farm life in England. When Albert's father secretly sells Joey to the military to help pay for the farm mortgage, Joey's predictable life is uprooted. Instead of pulling plows, he is hauling guns. Instead of trodding over rich soil, he is plodding through deep mud. Along the way he encounters and befriends a French man and his granddaughter, kind German soldiers and a wonderful horse companion, Topthorn. Meanwhile, Albert has vowed that he would persist until he was reunited with Joey and could bring him home.
*Highly recommend.
-It is considered a "Young Adult" novel--- Warnings/points to discuss: Albert's father is often drunk and not very nice; swearing; death/war violence; horses are sold to the butcher at the end of the story (It's reading level is late elementary, but content is more suitable for junior high and high school.)
We will soon watch the movie to compare it.
-He owns this book.
Audiobook-read by Anthony Heald 6 hrs, 55 min.
My fifth grade teacher read this book aloud to my class. At the sad part she had a student read aloud to us because even after all of the years of reading it, she would still cry. For this reason, I decided to listen to this book on CD with my boys instead of reading it aloud!
Billy longs to own a pair of coon hounds. He dedicates two years of his life to earning money to purchase them. Old Dan and Little Ann are dreams come true! Billy loves his dogs and trains them well. The threesome are successful coon hunters and soon encounter dangers beyond comprehension.
This book is superbly written and will capture the hearts of animal-lovers. I loved the use of figurative language. Mr. Rawls also portrays real life well-the joys, the horrifying and the pain. I also loved the relationship Billy had with his grandfather!
**Highly, highly recommend.
Warnings: some swearing, graphic death of a human, death of beloved animals, some readers may not like the fact that Billy and his dogs kill coons.
-Borrowed audiobook from the library, but I own the book.
Ms. Mattick's great-grandfather, Harry Colebourn, bought a bear on his way to WWI. He named her Winniepeg after his home town. Soon Winnie, which was her nickname, became the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade's mascot. To save her from the perils of the war, Lt. Colebourn takes her to the London zoo until the war ends. Since she was so friendly, visitors could actually enter her enclosure and interact with her. After the war Lt. Colebourn realizes that Winnie would live a fuller, happier life at the zoo, so he donates her. It just so happened that one of her regular visitors was a boy named Christopher Robin. As his father observed Christopher's interactions with her, a story developed . . .Winnie-the-Pooh!
Ms. Mattick divides the book up by Winnie's different settings (the woods, White River, Valcartier, Atlantic Ocean, Salisbury Plain etc). The story also revolves around Lt. Colebourn's journal entries, which she includes in the book. Although the book is based on fact and research, a lot of the dialogue, relationships, and events are imaginary. Additional information and photographs are included after the story finishes.
Very interesting and cute!
-Borrowed from the library.
-Formally published as Ten Little Indians.
Wow. I basically read this novel in two days. The writing is excellent yet easy to comprehend. The plot is so compelling that I found myself reading page after page without needing a break from the act of reading.
Ten strangers are invited to spend a week on Soldier Island. Each one is guarding a secret that the law cannot touch. One by one they are murdered. There is no way off the island. Which one is the murderer?
**Highly, highly recommend.
-Borrowed from the library.
I read about Ms. Janowitz's first book, The Doughnut Fix, somewhere online and thought is sounded fun. Unfortunately, our county's library system does not own it but owns this one, the sequel to it.
Tris Levin's town, Petersville, is dying. People are leaving. If the town doesn't come up with a workable plan to intice people to stay or to move there, it will disappear. Tris and his family are originally from New York City and have brought their culinary skills with them. Tris is sure his new doughnut business can assist making the town viable again . ..if he can just make more doughnuts. People love his creme-filled doughnuts. Just one problem-he cannot keep up with the demand. When he finds a doughnut making robot, he knows it will solve his problem and the town's problem. But it costs $50,000.
Tris's sister, Jeanine, secretly enters him into a cooking show called, Can You Cut it? . If he wins, he could buy the doughnut robot and save Petersville.
A fast-moving plot! Ms. Janowitz's description of NYC's food made me want to visit for a week and try all of the food items she mentioned!
I did not like Tris's sisters-Jeanine is a bossy, know-it-all and Zoe is cute and knows it-dangerous! and bratty. His parents also seem a bit clueless. I despised the host of Can You Cut It?, Chef JJ. Ms. Janowitz developed her character very well!!
Ms. Janowitz includes three recipes from the cooking show in the back.
Warning/point to discuss: spoiler alert- Tris cheats in the cooking competition
-Wordless book
I highly, highly recommend this book simply because Mr. Thomson is an incredible artist. The illustrations look like photographs. In fact, my eleven-year-old son asked while we were reading it together if the illustrations were produced on the computer or computer -generated. It was amusing that on the copyright page Mr. Thomson clarifies that the illustrations "are not photographs or computer-generated images"!!
Three children discover an old typewriter on a bumblebee ride on a carousel. Whatever word they type on it, the object comes to life. They have fun and must use their creativity as they problem solve.
**Highly, highly recommend.
Mr. Thomson has illustrated/created similar books-Chalk and Fossil.
-Borrowed from the library.
A girl moves in and discovers a great friend in her neighbor, a boy trying to build a treehouse.
A wordless book.
-Borrowed from the library.
Sherlock Holmes has retired to the Sussex Downs. Mary Russell, a fifteen year old woman of the 20th century, encounters him on one her rambles. Immediately the two are drawn to each other's intellect and personality. Soon Mary Russell (Holmes calls her "Russell") finds herself being mentored by him and even helps him solve a few cases. Little does she know what life-altering case awaits her and Holmes in the very near future.
Clever, well-written, a mystery set in England, well-developed characters, superb word choice =all the ingredients that I love in a book!! Ms. King is an astounding writer who seems to carefully research and who also can develop a sound, compelling plot.
Heads up- (for sensitive readers or junior high/high school readers) Holmes's cocaine addiction is mentioned but he is not using during the story; some swearing ; violence; alcohol use
*Highly recommend.
-Borrowed from the library.
"We become what we behold" in the everyday, in the moment-by-moments.
A book that will cause reflection and reordering. A book that will guide the reader to the core of issues.
Each chapter begins with a "behold" essay and then follows with a "become" essay. Beautiful artwork adorns many of the pages.
Unfortunately, I could not finish the book since it was due at the library (at pg 165). I am considering purchasing it.
*Highly recommend.
-Borrowed from the library.
